President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would ‘dominate the streets with compassion’ as he prepares to release his plan for police reform in the wake of national protests after the death of George Floyd.
Trump traveled to the Gateway Church in Dallas, Texas, for an economic roundtable on the state’s reopening amid the coronavirus crisis. But police reform took center stage after Black Lives Matter protesters demanded action after Floyd, a black man, died as the result of a white police officer kneeling on his neck for almost nine minutes.
President Trump, in his first remarks on police reform since Floyd’s death, described his response to the protests as ‘dominating’ but with ‘compassion.’
‘We are doing it with compassion, if you think about it. We are dominating the street with compassion,’ he said.
President Donald Trump said he would ‘dominate the streets with compassion’ as he prepares to release his plan for police reform
Notably, the top Dallas law enforcement officials were not invited to the event. All three – Dallas Police Chief Reneé Hall, Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown, and Dallas District Attorney John Creuzot – are African American.
The roundtable included African American leaders from the fields of religion, law enforcement, and small business owners.
The president announced he was taking four steps on police reform, including one that would ‘finalize an executive order that will encourage police departments nationwide to meet the most current professional standards for the use of force and that means force but force with compassion.’
The other steps include fostering economic development in minority communities, addressing healthcare disparities by race and providing more school choice.
Speaking at a campaign-style event, Trump also said his administration would invest more in police training.
President Trump repeatedly stated his support for police and said progress would not be made by calling millions of Americans ‘racists.’
‘In recent days, there has been vigorous discussion about how to ensure fairness, equality and justice for all of our people,’ Trump said.
‘Unfortunately, there’s some trying to stoke division and to push an extreme agenda – which we won’t go for – that will produce only more poverty, more crime, more suffering. This includes radical efforts to defund, dismantle and disband the police,’ he added.
He was repeatedly cheered on by the crowd – his reference to the coronavirus as ‘the plague from China’ drew both laughs and applause. The audience sat next to one another in disregard for social distancing guidelines. Most did not wear masks.
Near the church was a large group of Trump protesters with signs reading ‘Dump dumb Trump,’ ‘F*** Trump’ and ‘F*** your orange Cheeto looking a**.’
There was also a group of Trump supporters with signs that said ‘Women for Trump’ and ‘Trump 2020.’
There were some local law enforcement at the event, including Vernell Dooley, the Police Chief of nearby Glenn Heights and state Attorney General Ken Paxton.
There were also two police union officials at a time when police unions’ conduct is under increasing scrutiny: Michael Mata, President of the Dallas Police Association, and Manny Ramirez, the President of the Fort Worth Police Officers Association.
After the Trump administration used force to remove Black Lives Matter protesters from Lafayette Square – the area around the White House – President Trump was criticized by Democrats, some Republicans and several prominent retired members of the military.
Protesters greeted President Trump when arrived at the Gateway Church in Dallas, Texas, including one with the sign ‘F*** your orange Cheeto looking a**’
Protesters also expressed their support for the Black Lives Matter movement
Trump was particularly scrutinized for his photo-op at St. John’s Episcopal Church, where he held up a bible for photos after law enforcement officers used chemical agents and rubber bullets to clear the area of peaceful protesters.
The administration claimed the church was burned but it only suffered a small fire in its basement during the protests.
But his action was praised in Dallas.
‘When you raised that bible up after those folks burned out that church, we are in a spiritual warfare,’ one of the black reverends at the event told him.
Pressure is on for the president to deliver police reform measures after polls show Americans disapprove of his handling of the protests.
A new Washington Post-Schar School poll out Monday found 74 per cent of Americans say they support those protests while 69 per cent say the killing of Floyd represents a broader problem within law enforcement.
The same poll found 61 per cent disapprove of how Trump handled the protests while only 35 per cent approved, while November election polls show him far behind Joe Biden, raising alarm in the GOP Senate that their majority is at risk too.
Senate Republicans, tired of waiting on Trump, have started their legislation with Senator Tim Scott, the only black GOP senator, taking the lead on crafting it.
Scott told reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday that he was looking to reveal a bill early next week. Democrats released theirs on Monday.
Democrats’ legislation outlaws chokeholds, makes it easier to sue police officers, prohibits racial profiling, makes lynching a federal hate crime and ends no-knock raids.
Trump was a bastion of tough talk in the wake of Floyd’s death. He’s presented himself as the ‘law and order president,’ and, on Wednesday, he sent a controversial tweet that touted the debunked idea that a 75-year-old Buffalo man, knocked down by police during a peaceful protest, might be antifa.
The Gateway Church was crowded and people did not obey social distancing guidelines
Trump received cheers and applause from the friendly crowd
Many people in the church were not wearing masks
Meanwhile, Philonise Floyd gave emotional testimony on Capitol Hill Wednesday, the day after his brother George Floyd, 46, was buried in Houston.
Philonise Floyd pleaded with lawmakers to pass police reform.
‘They lynched my brother. That was a modern day lynching in broad daylight,’ he said of the Minnesota police officers. ‘People was out there pleading, please get off, he can’t breathe. People were video recording. Nobody cared. Nobody.’
The video of George Floyd’s arrest and of Chavuin kneeling on his neck – as Floyd said ‘I can’t breath’ and asked for his mother – went viral, leading to a nationwide demonstrations to support the Black Lives Matters movement and a call for police reform.
‘I’m tired. I’m tired of the pain I’m feeling now and I’m tired of the pain I feel every time another black person is killed for no reason. I’m here today to ask you to make it stop. Stop the pain. Stop us from being tired,’ Philonise Floyd said.
He asked lawmakers to listen to the protests that spung up around the country in the wake of his brother’s death and the calls to reform police.
‘George’s calls for help were ignored. Please listen to the call I’m making to you now, to the calls of our family, and to the calls ringing out in the streets across the world. People of all backgrounds, genders and race have come together to demand change. Honor them, honor George, and make the necessary changes that make law enforcement the solution – not the problem,’ he said.